Monday, March 11, 2013

Earl Grey tea cookies

Imagine a kitchen - well, actually a whole house - where the wonderful aroma of Bergamot orange is floating in the air. (If you're unfamiliar with bergamot, then my blog friend David Lebovitz comes to the rescue). Does that smell sound appealing? If yes, then read on :)

A friend of mine who works at KAFO(the Estonian distributor of Lavazza coffee, Just t teas, Jura coffee machines, Monbana Trésor chocolates, David Rio chais and such like) gave me a selection of Just t Black Label No X teas for degustation recently. All nine of them:

However, Nami-Nami is a food blog, not a drink blog, so I should provide you with a recipe instead of going on about my favourite teas, right? Coincidentally, my Uppsala-based friend Annika gave me two Swedish food magazines last Friday, and there was a recipe for Earl Grey-drömmar in one of them. These were egg-free cookies where one had to make an Earl Grey infused sugar to start with. Unfortunately, the cookies were a huge disappointment - they were too sweet and way too crumbly, so we sent the big box of cookies to someone we know appreciates soft and sugary cookies :)

Yet the smell of Bergamot in the air was so amazing that I had to give those cookies another try. This time I simply took my regular thumbprint cookie recipe and incorporated the lovely Earl Grey infused sugar into this recipe.

Much, much, much better. I ate them plain, well, with a large cup of freshly brewed Earl Grey tea, but a tiny schmear of lemon curd will make them even more enjoyable.

To start with, make the aromatic Earl Grey sugar. Blitz the caster sugar and tea leaves until you've got a fine powder:

Cream the butter with the Earl Grey sugar. Mix flour, salt and potato starch, sift into the butter mixture. Combine with a wooden spoon.
Using your hands, take small chunks of cookie dough and roll into small balls.
Place on a cookie sheet and flatten slightly. (If you prefer making thumbprint cookies, then press a thumb print onto each cookie and fill with a small dollop of lemon curd).
Bake in a preheated 180 C oven for about 15 minutes, until the cookies are light golden.
Cool for a few minutes, then transfer onto a metal rack to cool completely.
Enjoy.